Primary Seven Bells

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Old engines out, bilge gets a bath

I arrived at CSR Marine bright and early (at 11 AM) on Wednesday. The new engines arrived late last week, delivered by a MER Equipment truck. The big crane at CSR Marine pulled Seven Bells out of the water, where it had been hiding in a covered shed to minimize damage to the exterior varnish by the bright September and October sunlight -- no kidding! -- and set the boat down on blocks in the big metal shed at CSR's new facility in Ballard.

By the time I arrived, Randy had already been hard at work for a couple of hours mucking out the bilge. The death throes of the old engines had deposited a copious amount of oil, trash, and diesel fuel in the bottom of the boat, and it was a nasty sight. Randy removed at least nine gallons of the smelly, viscous mixture with the aid of lots of water and some noxious chemicals to break down the oil. Inside the boat's pilot house, the bilge floor was slick and slippery. After I got properly dressed in disposable coveralls, booties, and rubber gloves, I joined Randy with a squirt bottle, water buckets, sponges, and a pile of rags to detail the bilge.

By the end of the day, we had a lovely and much cleaner engine compartment, gleaming (kind of), sanitary enough for an engine compartment but not a surface you'd want to eat off of, and ready for the new engines to pop right in. It was sobering and exhilarating to see both the new and old engines sitting together on the floor of the shed next to the boat. They make an extreme contrast in size and appearance, the old Chrysler-Nisaan engines and the new Yanmars, despite the fact that both are 55 hp diesels. The Nissans were five feet in length, and the Yanmars are two feet shorter. So we'll have a lot more room to work with in the engine compartment. In addition, the smaller Yanmars will be much cleaner, smoke-free, more fuel efficient, and considerably quieter.

It's terrifying to spend so much money on new engines, but good to know Seven Bells will be set up mechanically for at least the next human generation of caretakers like me.